Religious nutjobs abound

Just in case anyone thinks that only Muslims, Christians, Jews, Hindus, and Sikhs have religious nutjobs intent on using religion as a weapon of oppression, we can now add Buddhists. Well, that pretty much covers the entire planet, doesn’t it?

The video above, by Al Jazeera English, was part of their online story, though they didn’t actually publish the flier in question so people could judge for themselves whether it really “insulted religion”. However, a Google search told me that NBC News published a detail from the flyer as part of a story on the controversy earlier this year.

It appears that Myanmar/Burma’s ruling military junta may be stoking religious discord as a way of exerting control over the country, it providing both an excuse for repression and a way of keeping people divided and distracted so they don’t agitate for freedom from military rule. Even if that really is the true situation, the country clearly has religious nutjobs who embrace this sort of oppression. The larger truth is that oppression in the name of religion is still oppression and is just as wrong as political oppression without religious trappings or excuse making.

And that’s all I’ll say about this topic right now, except to note that this is yet another example of why I want nothing to do with organised religion of any kind.